Flat Fee Real Estate Listing
What it is and how it works
If you’ve ever sold a home or property before you probably know the most expensive part of closing is the real estate fees. Typically, the real estate fees total 6% of the total value of your property. This is split in half with 3% being paid to the agent to list your property and 3% paid to the agent to bring a buyer.
Why are these fees so high? No one knows…. It’s been that way forever and I’m sure most agents and their brokers would love to keep it that way. In the “olden” days an agent would pay for advertisements in the newspaper, local magazine, or real estate publications (to name a few). But that isn’t relevant anymore… not in the digital era we are now in.
The way to get a home sold in 2021 is to have the best professional real estate photography, local MLS listing, third party website listings (i.e. Zillow, Realtor.com, etc.), and of course: social media exposure. With that being said… should it still cost around 3% of the value of the property for a quality listing? We think the answer is “no”.
Texas Roadrunner Realty provides a FULL SERVICE listing for one low flat fee. Every home, regardless of size/value, pays the same low flat-fee and gets the same high-quality service. Our full-service flat fee listing includes:
· Pre-listing/pre-photography home staging advice.
· Professional real estate photography.
· Complete MLS listing.
· Yard Sign, Supra lockbox, and flyer box.
· Professional showing management.
· Listings on all 3rd party Real Estate websites.
· Huge social media campaign.
· Professional negotiations end-to-end.
· Excellent communication and 5 star service.
Full service means everything you need to list and sell your home for top dollar. It’s that simple.
Now, you’ve looked into flat fee listings because you know (like everyone) that it is crazy to pay 3% to list a property in the 21st century! … it’s too much! Paying a reasonable flat fee and getting full 5-star service makes total sense. It’s time to cut the waste out of real estate!
Here are a few questions (and our answers) that come up routinely in conversation:
1. Are you a discount agent? No, we are a professional full-service real estate agency. We provide equal to or better than service that you would expect from an agent at any big brokerage.
2. Do you charge more for higher priced homes? No, unlike some of our “flat fee” competitors, we do not charge more for higher priced homes. Our fee is the same for every residential property listing, it is not based off sales price. Some “flat fee” agencies will charge a percentage fee (usually 1%) of the sales price if your home is worth a certain price (i.e. starting at $400k and up) instead or in addition to the set flat fee.
3. Do you really use professional photography on every listing? Yes, every listing will be shot by a professional real estate photographer. We do not compromise on the photography because we know it will be found online. Every property needs the best photos to stand out online and not passed up. This is included in the flat fee.
4. Will my house show up on Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com? Yes, absolutely! Once we post a property on MLS the information then flows to all of the third-party real estate websites. Additionally, we post all of our listings on the various social media platforms and to their followers.
5. Do I have to pay your fee up front or out-of-pocket? We receive our fee the same way other agents do, after closing. Instead of receiving a set percentage, we receive our flat fee. Unlike other agents, we do charge a 10% non-refundable deposit at the time the listing paperwork is signed. The final fee charged will be reduced by the deposit paid up front.
6. Are you there to help and negotiate along the way, or am I on my own? Full service means we are there with you the whole way. We’ll start by helping you understand the value of your home and what you can expect to make from selling. We can help you understand what you can do to best prepare your home for photography and for showing. We will negotiate on your behalf from start to finish. Again, we aren’t a discount agent and we’re not helping you FSBO. We are a full service professional real estate agency.
7. How can you charge this little and stay in business? I get asked this a lot…. Texas Roadrunner Realty was built from the ground up to support this exact fee structure. We have a broker that has supported us and what we are trying to do with TRR. We’ve also been 100% virtual from the start (even before COVID). It comes down to a basic principle: succeed by helping lots and lots of people save tons of money (when selling a property).
To summarize: our flat fee covers everything (and probably more) that you should expect when hiring any agent from any big brokerage and would charge you about 3%. We can do this because we were designed from the ground up to work this way. Your benefit is that you’ll get your home sold, have a great experience, and save thousands of dollars in the process.
You can also read what our clients are saying about us on Google , Facebook , and Zillow
Contact us:
Fill out this form to send us a message.
email info@texasroadrunnerrealty.com
call / text (210)339-2791
Image by Frantisek Krejci from Pixabay
